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 Moise Kean '50-50' To Blame For Racist Abuse Received During Cagliari Match, Says Juventus’ Leonardo Bonucci

Moise Kean '50-50' To Blame For Racist Abuse Received During Cagliari Match, Says Juventus’ Leonardo Bonucci

Moise Kean responded to racial abuse by scoring Juventus' second at the Sardegna Arena and celebrated right in front of the Cagliari ultras.

Adnan Riaz

Adnan Riaz

Leonardo Bonucci has made a shocking claim on Moise Kean after suggesting that the fast-rising Juventus star was "50-50" to blame for the racist abuse received from Cagliari fans.

During the match at the Sardegna Arena, the 19-year-old Italian forward scored the Old Lady's second and celebrated in front of the Cagliari ultras with his arms outstretched.

As Football Italia reports, it prompted the Sardegna faithful to start chanting 'even louder and far clearer racist abuse, which before that had been from only a handful of fans.'

Bonucci was one of the players that came over to Kean and pulled him away, but the Juventus centre-back, who opened the scoring in the match, was critical of his teammate's actions.

"Kean knows that when he scores a goal, he has to focus on celebrating with his teammates. He knows he could've done something differently, too," he told Sky Sport Italia.

"There were racist jeers after the goal, Blaise heard it and was angered. I think the blame is 50-50, because Moise shouldn't have done that and the Curva should not have reacted that way.

PA

"We are professionals, we have to set the example and not provoke anyone.

"I prefer to talk about the great performance. We were aggressive on the wings, as we knew they could cause problems with crosses.

"We knew Cagliari do zonal marking and leave that gap open, so we'd practiced in training yesterday and it worked out perfectly."

While the 31-year-old Italian defender was not happy with how Kean apparently egged on the racist abuse, Blaise Matuidi made his feelings perfectly clear about the treatment to the Juventus forward.

The 31-year-old former Paris Saint-Germain star lost his temper and could be seen on the touchline speaking with Juve boss Massimiliano Allegri.

Speaking of Allegri, the 51-year-old Italian head coach said that there should be a lifetime ban handed down to the fans chanting racist abuse.

"He scored another goal and did better in the second half, whereas he got more or less everything wrong in the first half," he told Sky Sport Italia.

"I didn't hear anything from the stands, as I was focused on the game. You need great intelligence to deal with these situations and should not go to provoke people. That, of course, does not mean the idiots in the crowd and the way they reacted should be justified.

"As always in life, there are idiots who do stupid things and ruin it for everyone else. I don't think talking about it all the time helps. I don't think halting play helps, because not everyone in the stadium did that.

PA

"We need to use the cameras, find those who are doing it and punish them. It's very simple, identify them and not one-year ban or two, just give them a lifetime ban.

"We've got the technology, it can be done if the authorities want to. The problem is, they don't really want to."

In complete contrast, Cagliari president Tommaso Giulini had an 'angry row' over the issue with pundit Daniele Adani, saying that people should stop being so "self-righteous" about the incident.

"If [Federico] Bernardeschi had celebrated like that, he would've been treated exactly the same way by our fans. If [Paulo] Dybala had the same drama queen antics after the goal that Matuidi did, he would've been treated exactly the same way," he said.

"I don't want people to start being self-righteous about it, because I heard that already, whereas Juventus players came to me afterwards and confessed Kean was wrong to celebrate that way.

PA

"We cannot go around calling the entire Cagliari crowd offensive things. If there were racist jeers, then our fans got it wrong, but it happened because of the celebration and would've happened even if the goalscorer had a different colour of skin.

"All I heard were whistles and jeers, but if you with your microphones picked up a few isolated racist insults, then of course those were wrong, but there's no need to be self-righteous about it and cast a shadow over the entire Cagliari fanbase or the club."

Of course, it's not the first incident to occur in Serie A this season.

Last year, Napoli manager Carlo Ancelotti threatened that his side would "walk off" from matches after Kalidou Koulibaly was the target of racial abuse during the Inter Milan match.

Meanwhile, England captain Harry Kane has issued a similar message recently following the abuse directed towards the likes of Danny Rose, Raheem Sterling and Callum Hudson-Odoi during the Euro 2020 qualifiers last month.

Would Allegri's suggestion of a lifetime ban be the best way to tackle this issue in the sport?

Let us know in the comments.

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: Football News, Football, Serie A, Leonardo Bonucci, Blaise Matuidi, Juve, Moise Kean, Juventus, Massimiliano Allegri